uuid — Universally Unique Identifiers — PyMOTW 3

RFC 4122 defines a system for creating universally unique identifiers for resources in a way that does not require a central registrar. UUID values are 128 bits long and, as the reference guide says, “can guarantee uniqueness across space and time.” They are useful for generating identifiers for documents, hosts, application clients, and other situations where a unique value is necessary. The RFC is specifically focused on creating a Uniform Resource Name namespace and covers three main algorithms: